The Visitors to Our World
by Lordoftheghostking28
Summary: When Twins Mark and Monica are transported into Mark's new Wii game, will they make it out? Will they survive the robot apocolypse and defeat the man in charge? What does Sonic the Hedgehog have to do with this? Your guess is as good as mine.
1. Chapter 1

**When twins Mark and Monica are whisked away into a gamers' dream, could it turn into a nightmare? Can they save the world from total destruction and chaos or will they parish in the fires of heck? What does a Sonic the Hedgehog game have to do with this? Your guess is as good as mine. Read to find out! **

**Rated T for crude humor, action/adventure, peril and mild blood.**

**MONICA…**

I thought today was weird and couldn't get weirder…and that was BEFORE I got sucked into my brother's game. But enough of that for now. Let's start at the beginning…

My kid brother and I were fooling around in our basement, playing our Wii and thinking nothing could go wrong. Man, we were off by a mile.

So a few days ago Mark, that's my brother, by the way, got a new game that I didn't care about at all. See, I wanted Black Ops for our 13th birthday.

Notice how I said OUR 13th birthday. That's right. We're twins. I'm exacally 56.78 seconds older than him. Anyway, while I wanted my extremely awesomely awesome game, _he_ ended up getting the new Sonic the Hedgehog game.

Yeah, major bummer. But on the bright side I got new Software to animate with on my laptop. I've been trying for ages to animate run cycles with animals.

So that fateful Saturday after our birthday began with Mark getting up at about 5:00 in the morning and running downstairs to play his new game. I stayed in bed trying to sleep to at least five the _next morning_.

But the sun had different plans by shining in as brightly as possible in my face. I had only slept to about 8:00.

Imagine my annoyance.

So I threw on some short-ish blue jeans and a rather long blue T-shirt. I went downstairs, drank some leftover coffee from my dad's coffee maker that he left before hurrying off to work, and ate toast with a spread of Nutella on it.

It was dang good.

Literally as soon as I finished the coffee and toast I heard Mark shout from the basement, "Gah! Not again!"

I snickered to myself and put the dishes in the sink and went downstairs. "So, did you fail again?" I asked casually.

"Monica! I've been on this one level sense about…about…ten minuets ago!" Mark said, looking exasperated. "It's the longest I've ever been on a level…ever!"

"Wow, that's terrible." I said in mocking tones. "Near the end yet?"

"Yeah, about half an hour left!" Mark stared at the screen.

It's amazing how similar we look alike and yet we hate anything to do with each other. We each have sandy blonde hair, greenish-blue eyes, and eyebrows that arch when we're paying close attention to something. Although in Mark's case, that never happens in school.

But although our facial expressions are the same, we're so different in height it's scary. I'm at least a head taller than my little brother, if I can even say that, being twins and all.

"So after this level come up and help me get rid of the extra coffee stuff." I said.

"Can't you do it? You know I hate the smell of coffee." Mark said, not averting his eyes from the screen.

There was a blast of machine gun fire on screen and Sonic died. The huge GAME OVER sign appeared.

"Ha, you lost. Come on." I headed up the stairs.

"Aaagh, come on, Monica! One more try…" Mark had already hit the retry button and tried again.

I sighed, rolled my eyes, and walked up the stairs. I then proceeded to take care of the coffee maker myself, without any help from the addicted gamer in the basement.

Just as I was putting the grinds in the garbage Mark gave a shout. "Monica! Monica, come here!"

I thought he was in trouble, so of course I ran down. "What?" I demanded.

"Look!" Mark pointed to the screen.

"Oh, you got upgraded another level? Good for you. Whatever. Goodbye." I started for the stairs again but Mark kept insisting. "Look! Our names…they're in the game!"

I stole a quick glance at the screen and read the subtitles. Was this some kind of practical joke?

"Mark, why is that guy…" I started, but quickly left off.

There was a bright glow coming from behind the TV, near the Wii. I quickly looked at it.

"Mark, if this is a joke, it isn't funny!" I protested."I know that's a flashlight, and-"

"It's not a flashlight!" Mark yelled, dropping his controller and backing away from the Wii. "It's for real! Monica…"

"What?" I demanded.

"We're…"

That was all he managed to say before the bright glow had consumed us.

**MARK**…

I thought today couldn't get any cooler, even after we got teleported to the best place in the entire universe.

Obviously Monica thought otherwise. But once you think about it, why would you WANT to go into a Black Ops game? They'll just be out to kill you.

We went from our boring old basement to a field that seemed to stretch on forever. The grass came up to my ankles, even though I was wearing my shoes that gave me an extra inch of height. The sky seemed blue-er if possible.

I suddenly felt like I stood out majorly, in my brown T-shirt and carpenter jeans.

"Wha…what is this?" Monica nearly shouted, turning in circles to take it all in. "Where are we? Mark… what level were you playing?"

I couldn't respond. I was too busy looking around, watching some birds hovering lazily in the sky.

"MARK!"

"Oh, I don't know. Some level where I just run around to find the Goal." I said. "It was pretty normal, except halfway through I ran into this cloaked guy. He said our names, and something about coming here…"

"Where exacally IS here?" Monica shouted. "I want to go back! What will mom and dad say?"

"Probably something stupid. They're grown-ups, Monica. They don't understand our gaming careers."

Monica looked like she wanted to scream. "Mark, just answer my question: Where are we?"

I looked around again. "Stage five, level two." I said.

"Is it bad?" Monica demanded.

"I don't think so. We're on their planet, Monica!" I felt really happy. "I've always wanted to do something cool…but not ever something as cool as meeting some game characters!"

Monica paled. "You mean…?"

"Yep! Isn't it great?"

"We need to find someone to send us back. Are there any geniuses here. Or is this entire planet as dumb as the games look?" Monica began making plans.

"Whoa, first of all, all the geniuses here are evil." I said. "We definitely don't want any help from them."

"Well, anyone else?"

"We'll just have to see, won't we?" I smiled mysteriously, or as best as I could.

"Mark, we're in the middle of a field. How the heck are we going to find anyone here?" Monica began to get agitated, as far as I could tell.

"Well, at least it's better than being in a battlefield in your Black Ops!" I retorted.

Monica opened her mouth to argue, thought better of it, and said instead, "I never thought of it that way. So we have a bigger chance of surviving here then?"

"As far as I can tell." I said. "Although if this was Guitar Hero we'd be A-Ok."

"Thank God it isn't Super Smash Brothers Brawl." Monica sighed.

"Or Super Mario Galaxy. We'd die." I laughed.

"Or Legend of Zelda."

We laughed for a few minuets until a voice cut through our thoughts.

"Um…can I help you?"

Monica and I whirled around. I broke into a huge smile and Monica screamed.

"What is that…that…that rat thing?" She screamed. "Oh, my Gah! Oh, my Gah! Get it away!"

Miles 'Tails' Prowler looked really rejected. "I'm sorry, I didn't…"

"Monica! Relax!" I said. "He's a good guy."

"I…you….this…Wii….Aaagh!" Monica cried. "I'm sorry. So much has happened in the last fifteen minuets. Sorry...who are you?"

"I'm Tails." Tails said. "Do you need directions? Are you lost?"

"You have no idea." I muttered. "Wow, this is really cool. Meeting you and all. So, how's things here?"

"Well, they've been better." Tails said. "Not all worlds are perfect."

Monica stared at him. "Worlds? You mean…there's more than one here?"

"What?" Tails looked confused. "Um…it's a saying… you know, like every cloud has a silver lining."

"Oh." Monica hung her head. "We're not from around here, as you can tell." She said almost too quietly to hear.

"I figured." Tails said. "Where are you from?"

"We're from Earth." I said.

"I've never heard of it." Tails said almost instantly.

"Oh, we're gonna die." Monica wailed.

"But until we can find out what Earth is and how to get you back, you should come with me."

"Really?" I asked. "So what's your place like?"

"I've got airplanes." Tails said.

"I'm soooo in."

**MONICA**…

Tails politely informed me along the way to the town that he was not a rat, he was a fox. Now that I thought about it, that made a lot more sense.

But the whole going-into-the-Wii-to-a-made-up-world didn't in the slightest.

The buildings and structures in the city looked strangely like ones on Earth. If I concentrated hard enough, I could almost imagine back home as right here. But as soon as I saw the people it all changed. There was something about them that didn't seem entirely…real. It was animation, but rather good animation. I almost believed they were real people.

Tails lead us to a small building that looked a lot like a library. Once we stepped inside, I realized it WAS a library.

I forgot all that happened in the past half hour or so and allowed myself to get lost in the books.

Mark and Tails talked about whatever nerdy stuff they liked to talk about while I read about their worlds' view on space and planets. It was fascinating.

They believed that all planets had links with others, and if you find a portal to another, you can visit freely. It gave me hope that we may soon return home.

"So…Monica?"

I looked up over the thick book I was thirty pages into.

Tails gave me an odd look. "Do you know much about our world?"

"Only that it's not real and you're Fictional." I said. "And animals and walk and talk but not only that, but can run at supersonic speeds."

"She doesn't believe that she's in your world yet." Mark said quickly. "Give her time. She'll adapt."

I returned to my reading.

About half an hour later when I had completed a book on the animals on the strange planet that was called Mobius, Tails gave me something wrapped in paper.

"What's this?" I asked cautiously.

I looked over at Mark, who had something that looked like ketchup smeared around his mouth. He managed to say around a mouthful of…whatever… "McDonald's."

I expected some greasy crap like on Earth, but this was…good.

I have never tasted such a good hamburger before. It was(Excuse the pun) Out of this world.

"I have to admit, this is good." I said.

"Really?" Tails' eyes seemed to get brighter than they already were. "Do they have this stuff on your planet?"

"We do, but it's worse for you." Mark said.

That was about when the door to the library opened and Mark just about fell out of his chair.

"What are you doing in a library, Tails?"

I turned and saw Mark's bizarre hero, Sonic the Porcupine…thing…whatever.

"Sonic, this is Monica and Mark." Tails said. "I found them in a field..they said they came from a planet called Earth."

"Our game consol glowed a weird glow and then we were in an endless scorching field that went on forever." I said plainly.

"I was playing your game…and then..then I was there!" Mark stuttered. "Man, do you have any idea how to get back to our real world?"

Sonic sort of stood there. "Um…what?"

"If you have any teleportation stations or whatever alien technology you might have to send us back, please give it to us." I said.

"Well, this world is probably a huge difference for you, huh?" Sonic asked. "I've never seen eyes that color."

"What this? It's common from where we come from!" Mark boasted. "What's rare is to find someone with red or purple eyes."

"Really?" Sonic looked interested. "So you only have boring colors?"

"I wouldn't say boring…"

"Can you help us or not? Because if you can't, leave me alone so I can read." I said rather loudly, opening up another thick book and beginning to read about evolution.

"Don't mind my sister. She's just mad we didn't get sent into Black Ops." Mark said. "She's actually kinda nice once you get to know her."

"I'll take your word for it." Sonic said.

"Do whatever you want." I muttered, shutting out their voices completely.

**MARK**…

I had no idea why Monica was acting like this. You would think anyone would be excited to meet any game character. But she seemed too tense and mean to enjoy anything.

Plus she was ruining my chances to meet everyone else.

It began to get late and Tails offered us a place to spend the night. I excepted immeadentally, but Monica gave me a look that said, 'What the heck are you doing?' only the look didn't say heck.

So I gave her the look that said, 'just come on, we may learn something about getting home'.

Luckily, being twins, we are psychic so we understand each other completely.

Or one of us has the power of persuasion. Hint: it's the awesomer of the two.

So that night we bunked in Tails' living room. Being the nice younger brother, I let Monica have the couch.

"I don't care if they're your heroes." Monica muttered sometime around midnight. "I don't trust them. I don't trust ANYONE here."

"Monica, they're the good guys! If they were evil, then this whole planet would go up in flames." I protested.

"So who do we have to watch out for?" Monica asked. "Who are the 'real' bad guys?"

I quickly explained to her who Dr. Eggman was and his many robots and minions. Monica snickered at his name, but I could tell she was listening. I also told her about as many baddies as I could remember from any game.

"Is that it?" She asked about forty five minuets later.

"I hope so." I said back. "If it isn't, then we're in a lot more trouble than I thought we were in."

Monica didn't speak for a while. Then she asked a question that was both stupid and logical, if you know what I mean…

"In games, you can cheat, right? Is there a way to cheat ourselves out of here?"

I laughed so hard I snorted.

"Mark, seriously, think about it! It makes more sense than supersonic porcupine things, at any rate!"

"Two things, Monica. One; that's the most stupid idea I've ever heard, and two, he's a hedgehog." I said. "And even if we could cheat ourselves out of here something might go wrong."

"So in other words we can give up any hope of going back home." Monica muttered. "We're stuck in this…this…weird world forever."

"Isn't it great? I mean, any planet with a McDonald's that's _good_ for you must be awesome, right?"

"Stop trying to be funny." Monica muttered. "I'm going to sleep now. Don't wake me if you know what's good for you."

**MONICA**…

The next morning I got up to the smell of pancakes. It was rather unusual, as my dad didn't have any time in the morning to cook big breakfasts like that. Our mom wasn't much better, because she was obsessed with shopping day and night.

I should have taken the hint that our parents cooking for us was too good to be true.

Sure enough, when I opened my eyes I nearly freaked, because the ceiling was a different height, slope and color. I glanced at the kitchen and got an equally scary shock.

Mark was the one cooking.

"Hey, Monica! Tails showed me how to make pancakes!"

I blinked hard. "You…cooking? There MUST be a fire station nearby." I glanced out the window, but all I saw was a nice yard, and a rather large shed that resembled an airplane hanger.

"Don't they smell good?" Mark bent way over the griddle and inhaled everything, practically. "I haven't smelled this smell in forever!"

"I have to agree with you on that one." I admitted. "How many are you making?"

"I dunno, there's gonna be four of us, so I'll make four each." Mark did the math.

"Ok, you, me, your creepy fox friend, and who else?" I said.

"Sonic's coming too." Mark said. "Don't tell anyone, but I put chocolate chips in these."

"It's pretty obvious, looking at those things that are a sorry excuse for pancakes." I said, glancing in the griddle.

There were two light brown ovals in there that had run together, and every now and then there was a splotch of darker brown.

"They look like sunglasses, kinda." Mark said, turning his head sideways and looking at the pancakes.

"Uh, yeah. Get those off the pan. They're burning." I walked away.

I went onto the back porch and looked over the lawn. It was so perfect it didn't seem real.

I had to remind myself it WASN'T real. Nothing here was real. So why did it _seem_ so real?

"I mowed the lawn yesterday."

I jumped and nearly fell out of the lawn chair at the voice behind me. I spun around to see Sonic standing behind me, looking over the lawn proudly.

"Oh, they have lawn mowers here too?" I asked.

Why did I sound so surprised? Of course they had lawn mowers here! Du_uuu_uh….

"Well, yeah. But we've got one of those that practically pushes itself, and all you have to do is walk behind it and turn it around every now and then." Sonic said. "But mowing really lets you relax now and then, right?"

I thought back to all the times I had to mow the lawn in 100 degree weather and nearly passed out. "It depends on how hot it is the day you mow." I said stiffly.

"If you've been bashing up robots all day you'll call this a break too." Sonic said, yawning. "So what's for breakfast?"

"You won't like it. Mark's cooking." I said.

"You'd be surprised…"

We went into the house to find the table laden with run-together chocolate chip pancakes, orange juice, syrup, butter, milk and plates.

"Ok, guys! It's ready!" Mark said proudly. "I hope you like it."

I decided to be polite and take my four, even though I planned to never finish them. We loaded up on syrup and butter and began to eat.

Poor, unfortunate Tails took the first bite. His eyes got wide.

"Do you like them?" Mark asked hopefully.

"Like them? I LOVE them!" Tails nearly shouted. "I must be a better teacher than I thought I was!"

Sonic took the next bite and then practically shoved the entire pancake into his mouth.

"You like them too?" Mark looked ecstatic. "Wow!"

It must be pretty exciting for your heroes to enjoy something you cooked up. I thought if they liked them, then I might.

I carefully put a forkful in my mouth and chewed it.

Holy. Freaken'. Crap.

It was the best pancake I've ever tasted, hands down.

"Mark, I never knew you had a talent for cooking." I managed to say between bites.

"I didn't either!" Mark said, drowning his pancakes in syrup. "It's weird, I think we have the same brand of syrup on Earth."

I grabbed the bottle from him and read it over. "It's a store brand, Mark. But it does look similar."

"So what's your world like?" Tails asked.

"It does look sort of like this one, only eye colors are usually different, and it's more…realistic, I guess is how you'd say it." I said.

"And what did you mean by 'I was playing your game'…?" Sonic asked. "What game?"

"Don't you know? You guys are some of the best video games ever!" Mark said. "We have a Wii, so that's how we're here in the first place."

Tails and Sonic looked completely and utterly confused.

"What's a Wii?" Tails asked.

"It's a game consol. We can play games on it." I said.

"I'm famous on your world too?" Sonic asked. "Wow, how did that happen?"

"No clue." Mark shrugged. "But you guys rock."

"You're not the best games ever, exacally." I said. "The best games were voted on, and Legend of Zelda overthrew you and Halo. Thank God."

"So we're like, second best?" Tails asked.

"Pretty much. Don't let it get to you, though. I'm always second best. She's older than be by about 56 seconds." Mark said apologetically.

"56.78 seconds, to be exact." I said in flat tones.

"So who else is here?" Mark asked. "I want to meet everyone."

"Wait, if these game things you speak of tell of our adventures, tell us something that we would know but no one else would." Sonic said.

"Pfft. Easy." Mark said. "You can't swim, you like coneys, and you really wish Amy would leave you alone."

"Ok, we'll leave it at that." Tails said. "If this game thing tells you all this, does it tell you about other things, like how to break into secret bases?"

"What secret bases? There aren't any bad people here, are there?" I asked.

"You got the occasional nutcase." Mark said. "But as far as I know, it never said an exact location for anything like that."

"Ok." Tails said. "So even in games locations are secret…" he thought as hard as his little fox brain could for a while.

"So how are we going to get back? Have you thought of anything?" I asked.

"Not yet. But the answer should come soon."

"What if we have to win the game?" Mark said. "What if when we win the game, we go back?"

"That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard of." I laughed.

"It's not any worse than your cheat ideas." Mark retorted.

"So in the meantime, want to meet everyone else?" Sonic asked.

Mark's eyes bugged. "Really?"

**MARK**…

This was by far the awesome-est day of my entire 13 years and counting. Not only did I get teleported to an awesome world by my Wii and meet some of my favorite game characters ever, I get to meet them all!

The only thing that sort of ruined it was the fact that Monica was coming too.

"Do we get to meet any actual _people_?" She asked. "Or are these more talking animals?"

"Is she always like this?" Sonic asked me after Monica made a terrible crack at Tails.

(Tails wasn't with us. He stayed behind to work on an airplane)

"If she doesn't like it, then she can get mean." I said. "But sometimes she can warm up. You just have to wait. Only time can tell."

We went to the field we had appeared in the other day. It wasn't as hot as it was yesterday, but the sun was still warm. It reminded me of back home.

But why did Monica want to go back in the first place? All mom and dad did was argue and pay us no attention. The only reason I was still alive was because of cereal and toast.

But here, on Mobius, this was paradise. No parents, just great awesome people.

"If we're lucky, we can find someone here. Either it'll be Knuckles digging for treasure with a metal detector or Amy prancing around picking flowers." Sonic said. "But if it's Amy we leave immeadentally."

"Ok." I said. "I don't really like her either."

We went a bit further into the field until we found a small clearing clear of grass.

Near the edge of the clearing thing was a small brown bunny.

"Hey, Cream?" Sonic asked.

Cream turned around. "Hi, Sonic!" She squeaked. "Who are these guys?"

"This is Mark and Monica. They came from another world yesterday." Sonic said.

"Wow, really?" Cream barely reached my hips. She was even cuter than in the games.

"You're Mark?" She asked me; her brown eyes wide.

"Yeah. Hi, Cream." I said. "Is Cheese with you?"

Cream shook her head. "He's taking a nap."

Monica snickered behind me. "Cream cheese?" She giggled.

Cream went around to Monica. "You have pretty eyes."

Monica sort of stood there. "Uh…thank you." She managed to say. Her face broke into a smile. "You have cute ears."

Cream blushed and looked away. "Do you want to be friends?"

Monica looked at me like she didn't know what to do.

I nodded at her and she turned to Cream again. "Sure."

Cream jumped up and down. "Do you like flowers? I like pretty purple ones!"

"Yeah, I do too!" Monica smiled. The two of them ran to the corner of the field to look at some flowers.

"That was unexpected." I said, looking surprised.

"Tell me about it. But if anyone was going to get to her it'd be Cream." Sonic said. "She has her way of breaking even the stoniest heart."

Monica and Cream came back about ten minuets later with a bundle of flowers.

"The flowers here have some healing powers." Monica told me. "These will help colds if you grind them up in tea."

"It's good too." Cream squeaked. "It's kind of like mint."

"Monica, we're going to meet everyone else. Come on!" I called, walking out of the field after Sonic.

"Can I come too?" Cream asked.

"Sure." I hear Monica say.

_This is good_. I thought._ If she makes a friend or two then she won't be so eager to go back home._

We walked out of the field and into the town.

"So where to next?" I asked.

"Who do you want to meet next?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know. Surprise me."

We wove our way through the crowd until we came to a small side road thing that lead back into some woods.

After about five minuets we came to a ocean, practically. There was a small boat tied to a tree.

"Everyone in." Sonic said. Monica and Cream entered first. I got in behind them and Sonic grabbed an oar. We rowed for about three minuets before we reached an island.

"I think I know what this is." I said, smiling.

We exited the boat and headed to a small house thing. Sonic knocked on the door.

"What do you want? I'm busy! Go annoy someone else!"

"It's me, Knuckles." Sonic said.

"Oh, you." Knuckles grumbled. "In that case, I'm not home."

"Come on, man, open the door. I've got someone here that wants to meet you."

The door opened so suddenly it seemed like it was going to be ripped off its hinges. "What are you…Who's this?" Knuckles changed topics very fast.

"I'm Mark." I said. "We sort of came from another world."

"Really." Knuckles said. "Well, I know no way of getting back. Go away."

He began to shut the door but Sonic stuck his foot in the way. "Come on, they just want to meet you!"

"They just did!"

Cream glanced at me. "Um, Mark, can I talk to him, please?"

Cream walked up to the door and peeked around it. "I brought you some flowers." She said sweetly.

After a second's hesitation Knuckles opened the door again. "I can never resist the cute look…"

"So is this where you keep the Master Emerald? On this island?" I asked.

Knuckles gave me a weird look. "How do you know about that when you're from another world?" He glared at Sonic like he had told me.

"You won't believe me if I told you." Sonic said.

"…Nice house." Monica said after an awkward pause.

"I built it." Knuckles said. "You're…?"

"I'm Monica." Monica said. "That's Mark."

"Ok, well if you're done wasting my time you may leave. The boat's in that direction somewhere." Knuckles pointed and then slammed the door.

"I guess we caught him at a bad time." Sonic muttered. "Sorry. Anyway, let's head back."

**MONICA**…

If there was one person in this entire crazy world I could make friends with, it was Cream. She was great, making me feel excepted and more secure about everyone here.

She told me about the best bakery in town and how cool water skiing was.

"So who's Cheese?" I asked on our way back to the main city.

"He's my Chao." Cream said. "And he was my only friend until I met you."

"What's a Chao?" I asked.

"I'll show you later. They like everyone." Cream said. "Even if everyone doesn't like them back."

We reached the city and exited the boat.

"So where to next?" Mark asked, excited.

"How about we get all the grumpy people out of the way before we go on to the delightful ones." Sonic said. "Unless you've had enough grumpy for a day."

"I don't like grumpy." Cream squeaked.

"Me too." Mark glared at me.

I glared right back.

"Ok, then. Let's pay Blaze a visit."

Mark got really excited. "Monica! You'll like her. She's a cat!"

I had always wanted a cat when I was younger, but my parents had refused to get me one, even though I had proved myself 'worthy' millions of times.

"Blaze is nice." Cream said. "She can be shy though. And she can throw fire balls."

I gave Mark a weird look. "What does she mean by that?" I asked.

"She means what she said." Mark said. "That's why her name is Blaze."

I like cats, but not fire throwing cats, you see.

We wondered through the streets until we came to a rather large hill.

"Now that is a sledding hill." Mark commented loudly.

"It was a volcano. Now it's dormant." Sonic explained. "Blaze lives in a little house up near the top."

We trekked up a small path thing for a while until we came to a small house that was surrounded by trees.

"She doesn't get many visitors unless it's me, Silver or Knuckles. Occasionally Shadow comes up here, but usually it's to blow something up at the top." Sonic said, going over to the house's door.

He knocked and ten seconds later the door was opened by Blaze.

To put it mildly, cats on this planet were downright _cool_. Blaze had style.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Hi, Blaze. These guys wanted to meet you." Cream said.

Blaze looked at me and Mark. "Why?"

"We came from another world and I think you guys rule." Mark blurted. "And Sonic's letting us meet everyone."

"Really." Blaze said, looking as though this was completely normal.

"Blaze, this is Monica. She's my new friend!" Cream said happily.

I waved at Blaze, but she didn't wave back. She gave me a steely look and nodded.

"You have a nice house." Mark said, turning in circles.

Blaze nodded at him just as she had done with me. She glanced at Sonic. "Is there any hope of them getting home?"

"You don't like us, do you?" I accused. "You want us to go back, don't you?"

"If that's what you desire." Blaze said. Her expression hadn't changed. "Do you have any leads on getting back?"

Thunder rang out in the distance. I just realized it began to get dark.

Blaze looked out beyond the trees. "You should come inside."

**MARK**…

Blaze's house was full of cool little trinkets. There were shelves after shelves of figurines of dragons and mythical creatures. There was a fire in the fireplace, and above the fireplace there was a mantle with a single candle on it. The candle seemed to be burning with a green flame.

"So you don't know how to get back?" Blaze caught me looking at the green flame.

She was almost as tall as me, but nevertheless was as intimidating as a ten-foot tall giant.

"No. We have some theories, but they're crazy." I said. "At first Monica looked like she was going to kill for her way out."

Blaze nodded and glanced at the green flame. "She has a good heart, but it's protected by stone and misguided."

I thought that was the weirdest thing anyone has ever said about my sister. "So what about me?" I asked.

Blaze seemed to be staring into my soul. "You have to find courage in the future, Mark. Some things you can't do by yourself."

She left the main room on that creepy note.

By now the rain was down pouring outside in an all out flood, practically.

"Does it always rain like this here?" Monica asked from the other room.

"Only sometimes." Cream said.

I left the room with the green flame and joined everyone in the other room, where they were all gathered around another fireplace.

"Blaze, can I talk to you?" Sonic asked.

Blaze nodded.

"It's kind of not meant for them." Sonic added.

The two of them headed into the other room. "Um, talk amongst yourselves until we get back." Sonic said.

"What are they talking about?" Monica asked.

"I'll find out." I said.

"Wait." Cream said softly. "This really may be important. If you listen in on this and accidentally tell the wrong person what you heard, then who knows what could happen."

I stood near the closed door to the other room, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. I could hear Blaze talking about something in quick, rushed tones.

"But what if this is important…like if the more people know, the more we can figure out together?" I protested.

"I think we should wait." Cream said. "And besides, if Blaze catches you eavesdropping she can get pretty mad."

I backed away from the door and sunk into the couch beside Monica. "Maybe you're right."

There was a small tapping sound.

"What was that?" Monica asked.

"Be quiet…" I whispered.

We waited about ten seconds before another tapping sound came, this time a bit louder.

"Is there someone at the door?" Monica asked.

I crept towards the door that lead outside. Outside, lightning flashed. It was a classic murderer-at-the-door scene. I grabbed a thick snow globe from one of Blaze's shelves as I made my way to the door.

Monica and Cream followed me, with Cream hiding behind Monica's legs. Her eyes were wide and scared. "What if it's a robot?" She squeaked.

"Then I'll throw this." I said, gripping the door handle and lifting the snow globe over my head.

I flung the door open and someone attacked me.

"AAAGH!" I screamed. I tried to throw the globe, but it slipped out of my hand. My attacker yelled and shoved me aside and scrambled up from the floor, sopping wet from the rain and looking terrified. "Where's Blaze? Who are you? Why are you here? Why…Oh…Hi, Cream."

Cream went from looking terrified to looking happy. "Hi, Silver. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was coming to ask Blaze something, but halfway up the stupid hill I tripped and twisted my ankle. Then it rained a lot, I knocked on the door, leaned against it, and then it flung open and I fell onto this deranged psychopath." Silver inched away from me.

"So…you fell on me, you didn't attack me." I said.

"Yeah…"

"Wow, sorry, hey…oh no. Blaze's snow globe! It fell!" I freaked out.

"But it didn't break." Monica held up the globe, which was perfectly intact. "How the heck did that happen?"

"I'm psychic." Silver said proudly. "No, really, I am."

The snow globe lifted itself out of Monica's hands and landed back on the shelf it belonged on. "See?"

"Wow! Can you heal your ankle, then?" I asked.

"Last time I tried that I got distracted and it broke." Silver muttered. "But most of that was Sonic's fault. He was trying to catch a butterfly that had landed on my head."

Monica nodded slowly. "Oookaaaayyy…"

"So is Blaze here?" Silver asked.

Right on cue Blaze and Sonic came running from the other room. "What happened?" Blaze demanded. "I heard a yell."

Monica quickly accused me of attacking innocent bystanders.

Blaze gave me a murderous look that seemed to burn with fire. "Do not _ever_ touch my stuff, you hear?"

"Yeah…" I said, backing up from her.

Blaze turned to go into the other room.

"Wait, Blaze, can I get a towel?" Silver asked.

**MONICA**…

A bit later all six of us were gathered in Blaze's living room.

"Blaze I have to ask you something." Silver said. "When's the next date?"

Mark burst out laughing. "I _knew_ you two were dating!"

Blaze's eyes pretty much shot flames. "We. Are. Not. Dating." She hissed dangerously.

"Not that kind of date." Silver said. "It's…more of a 'when will something bad happen next' thing."

"So dating's bad?" Mark apparently spoke his thoughts.

Blaze was steaming with anger…literally. I quickly backed away from her with Cream. "Mark! Shut up!" I hissed.

"Well…something happened a few months ago." Sonic said. "And…a lot of people died."

"That doesn't sound good." I said. "What happened?"

"We're not suppost to talk about it." Silver said. "It was kind of classified in the first place. We already told you too much."

There was a rather long silence where the thunder continued to rumble outside.

"How many people died…can you tell us that?" I asked.

I hope that Mark would be able to use as many small facts as possible to come up with the big picture on what happened here. Sense he was a Sonic fan and played every game in existence, maybe he had a clue what had just happened.

"Honestly, they're still counting the dead." Silver whispered. "So few survived…"

"Where in your world did this take place?" I probed.

"Actually, it-"

"Shut up, Silver!" Blaze hissed. "I think they're secret spies."

"Spies?" I laughed. "For who?"

"They're not spies!" Cream protested. "They're my friends!"

Blaze just stared at us. "Fine. But I'll be watching you."

Mark shuddered next to me.

"The storm's stopped." Sonic said, glancing out the window. "Maybe we should leave."

"Maybe we should." Mark said, getting up rather quickly. "Sorry for using your snow globe as protection, Blaze."

Blaze hissed at him. After that he left rather fast.

"Yeah, sorry about him. He has a tendency to… attack and ask questions later." I said.

"I noticed." Silver said. "Well, I hope you can get back to your world."

"Me too." I sighed.

**MARK**…

We ended spending more time at Blaze's place than we thought. By the time we got back to town after dropping Cream off at her house it was about 3:00 PM. We ended up stopping at the McDonald's place again to eat dinner/lunch.

"Blaze's been sort of quiet recently." Sonic said. "She won't talk to hardly anyone besides Silver and me. I think it's just the shock of the….never mind."

"You keep bring this up, and then you don't tell us anything!" I protested. "We can't help you get Blaze out of her depression and help you guys if we don't know what's been going on!"

"It's complicated." Sonic said. "We sort of swore on our lives to never tell anyone."

"It doesn't involve any of you guys, does it?" I asked. "No one died, right?"

Sonic glanced around. "Uh…well…"

"So someone died."

"Well…yeah, but-"

"Who was it?" Both Monica and I asked the same question at the same time.

"Aaagh, I can't tell you!" Sonic nearly yelled.

Monica and I exchanged looks.

"Come on, it's getting late. We might as well head back. Maybe Tails found a way to teleport you back to your world." Sonic said. "Knowing him, he probably did."

**MONICA**…

It was about 9:00 PM. Mark, Tails and Sonic were in the airplane hanger, gawking over the planes and the mileage it gets or something. Tails hadn't figured a way for us to go back yet, and he had said in the meantime to enjoy ourselves on their planet. I told them I needed some space and started wondering their lawn.

It was the biggest freaken property I've ever been on. How the heck does Sonic manage to mow all this in one day?

Oh. That was a stupid question…

A twig or something snapped off to my right. I turned to see some trees at the beginning of a forest. I had wondered pretty far.

"Anyone there?" I asked.

Only crickets and frogs answered me. the sound reminded me of home.

Home.

I guess having a friend really made me forget what I was searching for in the first place. It can be good and bad at the same time, if you know what I mean.

I headed towards the forest. "Anyone there?"

I must have walked at least a mile with only the light from the moon guiding me. The trees were very close together, and more than once I thought I lost my way. But I broke branches to remind myself where I had come from so I could find my way back.

"Is anyone there?" I called, although I knew no one would answer, unless there were talking wolves too.

That thought didn't completely seem out of the question.

I was about to head back when I heard a stick snap up ahead. It sounded like a big stick too. I wonder…

I forged on, every now and then calling to see if anyone was there. I had the creepy feeling I was being watched.

Then I came to a small clearing free of trees.

"Is anyone here?" I called.

There was a small light suspended from one of the trees. "Hello?" I called again. "Small, little light? I can see you."

The light moved and came towards me. Then I realized that there was something attached _to_ the light.

Don't know what it was? Try_ robot that's about 35 feet tall_.

"Oh…my…Gah…" I muttered, backing up. "Go away, huge, creepy robot! Leave me alone!"

"Oh, you're not the one I was hoping to find." The robot spoke.

"…What?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're not the one I'm looking for." The robot said again.

There was a slight hissing sound and someone came out of the robots head. The robot reached up and the person got into its hand and lowered them to the ground.

"Who're you?" I asked suspiciously, the list of baddies recited by Mark going through my mind.

"I…" The guy paused for effect. "…am Dr. Eggman, super genius!"

I was 67% sure this guy was on the list. Unfortunately, I didn't know how evil this guy really was, so I played dumb.

"Never heard of you." I said.

"Curses!" Eggman yelled. "Well, soon enough that will change."

"How?" I asked casually.

Eggman stuck his moustache adorned nose in my face. "When I rule the world."

"Like in a bad way?" I asked.

"It depends on what your definition of bad is."

"Ok, look, I just want to go back home. Well, my home isn't really here..in fact, it isn't really anywhere on this planet, and-" I stuttered.

"You're not from this planet?" Eggman asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean my brother and I got teleported into a game." I said. "Can you get us back?" I asked without even thinking. I gotta keep in mind here that this is a "super genius".

"Of course I can get you back! But I would need one thing from you." Eggman said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I need you to capture Sonic." Eggman said evilly. It was a little too evilly for my tastes.

"Why would I do that?" I asked. "You know what? I can find some other guy to teleport me back and-"

"NO!" Eggman yelled. "I mean, no, there's no one that can! Only I have the necessary equipment for teleporting between worlds!"

"But why do you need Sonic?" I asked.

"So he can power it. He can run fast enough to power the teleportation machine so you can go back."

"But why do I need to capture him?" I asked.

Eggman hesitated. "You need to so he can get some pent-up energy. He'll be extra hyper so you can get a better turnout."

It sort of made sense.

"But how do I know I can trust you?"

"I offer you a way home. I'm true to my word."

I thought about it for about ten seconds. "I'm pretty sure that you were on my brother's list of 'Psychopathic Maniacs'."

"You want to know what they were talking about, with the millions dead?" Eggman asked mysteriously.

"Well, yeah, if I can help in any way-"

"Get me Sonic and I'll tell you."

"Can't you just give me a hint?" I asked.

Eggman sneered at me. "You obviously haven't met everyone yet."

With that, he climbed up into the robot's hand and back into its head. "I'll be waiting here for when you get him. Don't stall."

"Ok, then…" I muttered. Going home and having answers were all I cared about, after all.

**MARK**…

"You built this?" I marveled at the airplane hanging in the airplane hanger in Tails' front lawn.

"Yeah. Everything." Tails said proudly. "Took a while, but it's finished."

"But it still can't go as fast as me." Sonic said.

"But still…wow…" I walked around the plane about fifteen times, trying to take it all in. "_The Tornado_…"

"Yep." Tails said. "It's helped in a lot of crazy missions involving the fate of the universe."

"So…if you save your world…is that connected with Earth in some way?" I asked. "I mean, when you say you saved the universe…?"

"I don't know. It possibly could have an effect, but I'm not sure." Tails began to day dream. "But what if…?"

"What if what?" I asked.

"Don't disturb him. If he gets distracted he can't think." Sonic said.

We waited a bit while Tails ran off and returned with some paper and a pencil. He began scribbling furiously and muttering to himself.

"Dang, this must be important." Sonic remarked about five minuets later.

"Shouldn't Monica be back now?" I asked. "I mean, how long can a walk take?"

"Don't ask me, I don't walk anywhere." Sonic shrugged. "I'll go find her. You make sure Tails doesn't use up all the lead in that pencil."

So I got stuck watching the brainiac fox scribble notes on paper while Sonic went to find my sister.

Although it was rather cool sitting in the presence of an actual smart person it began to get old…fast.

"Mark?"

I spun around to find Monica at the hanger's entrance, her blue-green eyes wide. "Mark, I've got to tell you something. This is important."

"What?" I asked.

"Go through the list of baddies again."

"Ok, well, there's demons of sorts, it depends on where you are. There are giant mutant flowers, giant mutant bees, robots. The robots are built by Dr. Eggman, and-"

"Stop right there." Monica said. "How bad is this guy?"

"Um…on the Evil Scale, about a seven out of ten." I said. "Why? Don't tell me…"

"I was walking through the woods, Mark." Monica said. "Then I found a robot. He came and told me that he can take us home. Home, Mark! But in order to do that I needed to bring him Sonic."

"Typical. What did you say?"

"Well, I was kinda vague, but I think I said yes…but I'm not sure." Monica's eyes seemed to get wider. "He also said that we obviously haven't met everyone yet and he knew what everyone was talking about…you know, the next 'date', and the millions dead."

I glanced at Tails, who was still scribbling like mad. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"Sonic just went out there looking for you." I gasped.

"Oh my gah… If he finds my trail into the woods he'll get captured!" Monica said. "Come on!"

The two of us ran out onto the lawn, screaming at the top of our lungs.

"Sonic! Come back!" Monica screamed. "Don't go into the woods! It's a trap!"

Why did this seem like some sort of terrible murder movie?

The word murder upset my stomach. I ran faster, towards the woods and towards where Monica had entered.

"I entered in that clear-ish spot over there, Mark, I bet you anything he went in there too!" Monica yelled.

All light seemed to be swallowed up by the trees as we entered the forest. It was eerily quiet, with only the sound of our heavy breathing and footfalls as we ran.

"Over here." Monica said, pulling me in the right direction.

There was a strange noise up ahead.

"I know that sound anywhere." I muttered. "That's a robot. Come on! We have to go faster!"

We ran like mad, even though my legs were cramping up and my left ankle was killing me.

Suddenly there were bright flashes of light ahead.

"No!" Monica screamed, tearing into a small clearing that held no trees but had an at least thirty two foot tall robot.

"Oh, yes, thank you, Monica." I knew that voice, but I had always laughed at it. Now it chilled me to the bone.

"I suspect you want to go home now." Eggman continued.

"Where's Sonic?" Monica screamed, looking terrified and yet determined to set things right.

The robot unclenched one of its metal fists.

I had to take a step backwards. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Sonic lay motionless in the robot's palm, looking for all the world dead or dying.

"Let him go!" I shouted. "Or I'll….I'll…"

"You'll what? Throw twigs? Intimidating, but not good enough."

With that, the robot turned and blasted up into the sky. "See you…not!"

"What do we do?" Monica asked as the robot disappeared from sight.

"We get Tails." I said. "He'll know what to do."

**MONICA**…

I have never felt so guilty.

Not only had Mark lost his all time favorite video game character, but that character may be out of the games for good unless we did something, and fast.

Why did I prize going home over a life?

Why did I betray my friend?

Why did I even get teleported here? I should have run as soon as I saw the Wii glowing.

But yet, here I am, in the backseat of a biplane that was designed for two people about Tails' height, not two humans and one fox.

"He went south!" Mark shouted over the roar of the wind. "Then I lost sight of him!"

Tails turned the biplane and we headed south.

"Do you have any ideas where they could have gone?" I shouted.

"I have one, but just hope I'm wrong!" Tails shouted back.

We flew at a rather low altitude, if you ask me. Then we made a bumpy landing on someone's driveway.

"Is that even legal?" Mark asked, getting out of the plane.

"Let's hope so." Tails said. "Follow me."

We ran a short distance to what looked like an old abandoned factory in the moonlight.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's hopefully Eggman's base." Tails said.

After Mark got the door open we went into the building. There was no light at all.

"Hang on a second…" Tails said, and then light filled the entire space we were in. Light switches are handy.

"Wow…I wonder what was being made in here before it got abandoned…" Mark began to wonder the room. "What was this big vat full of?"

I looked up near the end of the room. There was a small balcony that looked like it lead further back. "What's up there?" I asked.

"I don't know. Should we check it out?" Mark looked excited.

"We should." Tails said. "Come on."

We made our way back there. Then the real probablem struck.

"Where's the stairs?" Mark asked, looking on either side of the balcony. "There's no stairs! That's dumb…"

Then I found out that not only could Tails walk, talk and build things, but he could _fly_.

"Ok, now this is really weird." I muttered as he flew up to the balcony and threw a rope over the side.

"Come on!"

Mark shimmied up the rope as if he was born to climb. I had some trouble starting, but I managed to get up.

"There's another door." Mark pointed. "Come on."

I put my hand on the cold metal doorknob. "Who knows what's behind this door." I muttered. "Why didn't we bring weapons?"

Mark slapped himself on the forehead. "Well, duh! I thought your days of playing war games paid off, but boy, I was wrong!"

"Relax. There's pipes over here." Tails handed Mark and I some pipes. "These could come in handy."

I nodded and gripped the doorknob tighter. I slowly opened the door.

It was dark. Even the light that came from the main factory room couldn't break the darkness ahead.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Mark muttered. "Long, dark hallways aren't my specialty."

"Because we all know it's short, brightly lit closets." I said flatly.

"Very funny, Monica." Mark growled.

"So what do we do for light?" I asked.

There was a bang behind me and I turned to see Tails pick up a rusty steel lantern thing with a half melted candle in it. "Ok, there's this. Anyone got any matches?"

We improvised with a piece of wood and something scratchy. It worked, at least.

We had a lantern.

We had pipe clubs.

We had each other.

We were SO NOT prepared.

But we went ahead down the dark hallway anyway.

The candle was small, so we didn't have much light. But any light was a blessing in the pitch blackness ahead of us. We followed the walls, but it never branched off into more corridors or hallways. It was decently straight for the most part.

Then we met the hall's end.

"It's a steel door that's locked from the outside." Mark confirmed after taking a three second look at the door. "We have nothing to break it with."

"Well, then. We're stuck." I muttered, marching up to the door. Something shifted under my feet. "We might as well head back, and-"

"Monica!" Tails said. "Look down!"

I did. There was a wooden door under my feet. I mean, a literal door. Like the ones that normally hang on hinges that are vertical.

"Well, isn't that the weirdest thing I've ever seen." I muttered.

"I think that's our way in." Mark said. "I'll go first, Monica."

No way was I arguing.

So Mark pulled the doorknob and the door opened outwards onto some stairs.

"Here we go…" Mark entered.

**MARK**…

The stairs went straight down and lead to another door. This time, pale blue light flowed around the sides of the door. At least there_ was_ light.

But the light also meant that someone was in there.

"Everyone's got pipe clubs, right?" I asked.

Monica held hers up awkwardly. "I have it, but I don't know how to use it."

"Me neither." Tails had a pipe in one hand and a lantern in the other.

"That makes three of us, then." I sighed. "Well, here goes nothing…"

I pretty much broke the door down in my haste to get it open.

We were blinded momentarily by the…

Moonlight?

"What? I thought we were in a factory!" Monica said. "How did we get around the entire thing?"

"Well, either the steel door was the only way in, or this was all a waste of time." I sighed, tossing my pipe to the ground. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know." Tails' eyes were wide. "I don't know!"

"Mark, you gotta know something! A secret base! Anything!" Monica yelled at me. "You're a game freak! Where do the bad guys have their hideouts?"

"I don't know! If we could happen to get _into_ Eggman's base, then I would know where to go from there on out! But I have no idea where the base actually _IS_!" I nearly yelled. "We need someone who knows where it is!"

"But _who_?"

I searched the gaming portion of my brain at least ten times. "I can't think of anyone!"

"There's got to be _someone_!"

"Well, there isn't! And thanks for getting us into this mess in the first place, Monica!" I shouted. "If it wasn't for you we'd be back at the airplane hanger watching Tails work like a madman!"

Monica opened her mouth to shout something, but nothing came out. She shut her mouth and glared at me. "You mean if it wasn't for your stupid game none of this would have happened!"

"If you weren't my twin-"

"But I am, so live with it!"

"Stop!" Tails yelled over our yelling.

Monica and I stared at him. "What?" Monica hissed.

"We'll get nowhere like this." Tails said. "I think the best thing we can do is head back to the house, try to get some sleep, and head out in the morning."

"And maybe get some help from friends." I added.

Tails nodded. "And that too."


	2. Chapter 2

**MARK**…

So we headed back. I couldn't sleep at all, not with villains running loose. Monica, on the other hand, was out like a light. How could she sleep like that? Then again, she got us into this mess, but she couldn't get out of it without some help.

Something was bugging me more than the whole fact that… A: my hero was just kidnapped, and B: My sister was the cause of everything that happened in the last few hours.

What did Eggman mean by 'we obviously haven't met everyone yet'? I mean, I know that.

Unless someone we haven't met yet could give us some advice or something.

That made sense, right?

**MONICA**…

I couldn't believe I slept that night. I should have been up all night worrying, but I slept like a log. Another thing added to the List of Guilty-ness.

I awoke to the sound of Mark reheating pancakes in the microwave. He looked like he hadn't slept at all last night, and I don't blame him.

"Hey, Mark." I said.

He just gave me a bleary-eyed stare. "Hey." He muttered.

"Look, I'm sorry." I said. "if I hadn't marked the way back to here from the forest none of this might have happened."

"But it did, all right? You can't change that, ok? No one can!" Mark nearly shouted. He threw a pancake onto a plate. "Now we've got to search the entire freaken' place!"

"But we can get some help doing it, at least." I said, trying to optimistic.

"At least." Mark muttered. "Come on. After we eat we've got to meet Tails out in the hanger. He's been out there all night."

**MARK**…

So we went out in the cool morning air to the hanger.

"Do you think we hit a lead yesterday with the steel door?" I asked as we ran to the hanger.

"Possibly. I can't tell. It didn't even look used." Monica responded. "We might stop off there again to do a double check."

We entered the hanger. "Tails?"

"Well, look who's here."

Blaze, Silver, Knuckles and Tails were gathered around _The Tornado_.

"Here's our search party." Tails said. "They were the only people I could reach at the moment."

"Awesome." I sighed. "But…how will we all fit in an airplane that's only designed for two people?"

Ten minuets later I had my answer. You know those sidecars on motorcycles? Well, Tails had made some similar to that, only they were for the airplane. It was pretty scary looking, but he assured me that they were totally safe.

Our first stop was….(guess)…the factory we visited yesterday. It seemed less dark and depressing in the sunlight.

We all hopped out of the biplane and headed inside. The lights were still on from last night.

"Ok, wait here and I'll get the rope." Tails flew up to the balcony.

"Wait!" I said. "Didn't you leave the rope dangling over the side after I climbed up?"

Tails looked at the rope that was coiled neatly in the corner. "I did, didn't I?"

"Then someone followed you." Blaze said. "We may not be alone on this mission."

"Everyone be on your guard." Knuckles said as Tails tossed the rope over the side and everyone climbed up.

Monica, Tails and I grabbed some more pipes and we turned to face the door that lead to the dark hallway.

"I swear I left this open yesterday!" Tails said.

"I'm going to pull the rope up, if that's ok with everyone." Monica pulled the rope up and threw it in the corner. "Now whoever was following us will have a bit of a complication."

"Wait, what about a lantern or something?" I asked. "We left it at the exit last night."

Blaze held her hand out in front of her and a small ball of flame appeared. "We won't need a lantern." She said.

"That's cool." Monica said.

We all entered the tunnel with Blaze leading us. While we were all in the semidarkness, I learned something new.

"Uh, Silver, you're glowing." I said.

"I know." Silver said. "Isn't it cool?"

I sort of shrugged and continued on.

We reached the steel and trap door after a few more seconds. "So this is where we got stuck yesterday." Monica said. "And I thought I left the trapdoor open."

"I could possibly get the steel one open." Silver said. He walked up to the door and looked at its edges.

"Watch. He can use the Force!" I whispered excitedly to Monica.

Silver clenched his fists and the door crumpled, revealing another long dark hallway.

"Wow." She said.

"Let's go." Knuckles started for the tunnel. "The sooner we move, the sooner we can get out of here."

I really wish I was psychic. I would never have to do any chore again.

But I'm not complaining, because I was in a video game already. Maybe I really had superpowers but didn't know how to use them yet.

The long, dark hallway was longer and darker than I expected. At one point, it began to slope downhill.

"Where the heck could this lead?" Monica asked.

"Hopefully where we want it to." Tails answered.

We trekked on for a while.

"How long is this thing?" Knuckles demanded.

I was busy thinking of all sorts of horrors we could find on the other end. Of all the things I was thinking of, not one would leave us alive.

"There's another door." Blaze announced.

"Finally." I ran up to it. "It's steel."

"I got it." Silver announced.

Soon that door was out of the way and we faced a long, occasionally lit by small lights, hallway.

"Someone was here recently." Knuckles said.

"That's good. Let's go." I lifted my pipe threateningly(Or as threateningly as possible) and walked cautiously down the hall. Monica followed me, telling me how stupid I was.

Then we came to a split in the hallway.

"I'll go that way." I pointed down the darker passage.

"I'll go that way." Monica pointed down the more brightly lit hallway.

"I'll go with you, Mark, because there seems to be less light." Blaze gave me an evil look. Apparently she still didn't forgive me for using her snow globe as a weapon.

"I'll go with Monica." Silver said.

"I'm going with her too." Knuckles said. "I guess that leaves Tails with Blaze and Mark."

**MARK**…

Blaze lit the way through the tunnel. There was only one small electric light, and it was at the beginning of the passage. The rest was pitch black.

"I wonder what we'll find at the end…" I wondered. "Hopefully nothing _very_ dangerous."

"Actually, I was more concerned on what we'll find as we _follow_ the passage than on what'd be at the end!" Tails said loudly. "Blaze! Robots!"

Both Blaze and I spun around to see two stout robots with small laser guns aimed at us. I lifted my pipe and charged at the nearest one.

It fired at me, but my pipe was in the way. It rebounded the shot and shot the robot's head off. I then proceeded to beat it to death with the pipe.

Blaze had a whole different tactic. She knocked the gun from the robot's hand and then blasted it with scorching hot flames.

This whole battle lasted about ten seconds.

Blaze picked up her robot's fallen gun and tossed it to Tails. "You may need this."

"Uh…yeah…wow…" Tails looked stunned. "I think we're on the right track, then."

Blaze turned to me. "You fight pretty well."

"I didn't even know what I was doing." I admitted. "My instincts just screamed, 'ROBOT! KILL! KILL!' and then I did that."

"If we make it out of here then I aught to teach you a few moves." Blaze said, heading down the tunnel with her little flame.

"Wait, if?" I shouted.

**MONICA**…

The hallway we went down was lit, at least. I wasn't so sure about Mark's group, but they had the only person who could be used as a walking light.

Unless you counted my glow-in-the-dark psychic companion.

"I'm thirsty." Silver said about three minuets of walking down a quiet, long hallway later.

"None of us have anything." Knuckles said. "Just stick to watching out for anything suspicious."

"Ok, then…"

The small electric lights began to get scarcer and scarcer along the hall, but they still provided just enough light for us to see. That was just about when Silver stopped walking and spun around. "Who's there?"

"Shhh!" Knuckles hissed.

We all stood deathly still for about thirty seconds before something moved behind us.

Knuckles lunged for the figure but whoever it was was very quick. I lifted my metal pipe and prepared in case the attacker went for me.

Knuckles gave a loud "Aaagh!" and nearly fell onto Silver.

"Are you all right?" Silver shouted.

"HEY! Behind you!" I yelled, charging with the pipe.

Silver spun around and deflected the attacker's fist. "Monica! I need your pipe!"

I felt my pipe slide out of my hands as Siler used his psychic power and threw it at the attacker.

The pipe hit the wall with a loud CLANG! Sparks flew.

"Silver, you missed!" I shouted, backing up against the wall in a Karate position. "I'll go get the pipe and-"

"Silver?"

I just stood there, as did Silver. Knuckles struggled to get steady. "Who're you?" He growled.

"Yeah. Who are you?" I demanded. "Because if you don't show yourself I'll run over there, grab my pipe and whack you over your head."

Our attacker gave a slight laugh. Hopefully in the dim light he couldn't see us, and how scared I probably looked.

"How do you know my name?" Silver demanded. "And did you follow Tails and a boy and girl into the factory yesterday?"

There was one small light on the wall. Silver glanced at it and it glowed a bit brighter. We could finally see our attacker.

"What the h*ll are _you_ doing here, Shadow?" Knuckles nearly shouted. "Why were you following them?"

"I saw Tails' airplane land nearby the factory and followed them. Obviously something was wrong because Sonic wasn't with them." Shadow said. "But they couldn't get past the steel door."

"Yeah, could you tell us where exacally _is_ here?" Silver asked.

Shadow glanced around. "You mean you really don't know? This is Eggman's new base."

"I thought that his base was the factory…" Silver said.

"This _is_ the factory."

We sort of stood there.

"So he moved out from the main factory and made a new base in the tunnels?" I asked.

"He thought that the security wasn't very secure." Shadow said. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Monica." I said. I glanced around. "And could you tell me if we're underground, or we're sort of underground, or what?"

Shadow was just staring at me.

"Um…hello?" I asked. "Are you ok?"

"I…..it's just….you…you look like someone I used to know."

"Really?" I said. "Who?"

"M-"

"I really think that we should move on." Knuckles said suddenly. "We need to find Sonic."

"Yeah. You coming, Shadow?" Silver asked, turning to walk off down the hallway.

Shadow sort of stumbled off after us as we went down the hallway.

**MARK**…

"I hope the other group is doing better than what we're doing." I muttered. "All we managed to do was get attacked by a couple of robots."

"And nearly kill ourselves by running into a wall." Tails added with a nervous chuckle.

"Be quiet. I didn't see the stupid thing in the first place." I grumbled.

So far we had found zip, zero, nada, goose egg…and then a coin thing.

"Well, someone's been down here." Blaze confirmed. "Someone with a lot of money."

"Maybe we're getting close!" I muttered excitedly. "Hey, Tails, I'll trade you weapons."

"Nah. I'm good." Tails' machine gun thing was trembling and he looked terrified. "I have good aim."

I sort of doubted that on account on how bad he was shaking. I hoped he would shoot the next robot we met and not me on accident.

We went a bit further before I heard Blaze hiss, "Be quiet!"

So be quiet we did.

Nothing happened for the next few seconds until I heard a slight thunk and a "Shhhhh!"

Blaze's flame grew brighter. "Show yourselves!"

From the darkness ahead came Monica, Silver, Knuckles, and someone I didn't quite expect to see, Shadow.

"How did you get here?"Silver asked. "The thing didn't loop at all!"

"I know." Blaze said. "Then how did we meet you?"

"Well, there were a couple of dark places we passed by. There might have been a door." Silver admitted. "But I'm not sure."

"Well, we definitely didn't see anything." I said. "How did Shadow get here?"

Shadow looked a bit surprised that I knew his name, but he didn't say anything. He glanced at Monica.

"Well, he kinda attacked us." Knuckles said. "But he didn't say why he was here in the first place."

"Yeah. Why are you here, Shadow?" I asked.

"I was looking for Eggman." Shadow said. "I heard something that had something do with him, so I came to investigate." Once again, he glanced at Monica. "Where's Sonic?"

"That's why we're here." I said. "Eggman caught Sonic. We have to rescue him. 'Nuff said."

Shadow nodded, like he had always knew that this would happen.

Weirdly, I did too.

"Well, we'd better go back to where you might have seen a door." Blaze said. "We can find out way out from there."

We began to head down the way in front of us. The electric lights were getting rarer, and the hallway, darker. Blaze had to substitute for the lights once again.

Monica fell behind everyone and walked by my side. "What's up?" I asked casually.

"He says I look like someone he used to know." Monica whispered. "I don't know who. Can you tell me? You've played the games."

I stared at Monica for a while, trying to place it. "Um…ok, I've looked at you a hundred times, and nothing ever screamed at me that you resemble anyone." I said.

"But did you see the way he was looking at me?" Monica added. "Like he didn't want me to know. He seemed…"

"Depressed?"

"Well, yeah."

"Sad?"

"Yeah…"

"Antisocial?"

"Not exacally."

With that shard of hardly anything, I thought once more. "Ok, sad, depressed, but not antisocial. Something must be seriously wrong with him."

Monica sighed. "You're the game freak. If that's all you come up with, then all that game playing's done to you is fry your brain."

_Oh, ha ha Monica, you could not be more wrong. _

Monica began to walk faster up to where Blaze was lighting the way.

"Um….Monica?" I more or less whispered. "Come here."

Monica fell back to where I was. "I think I know." I muttered.

**MONICA**…

"Well, what is it?" I asked.

"I know what happened where the millions died. I know why it was classified, and I know how pretty much everyone here except us know. And what Shadow said." Mark looked like this was all coming together finally.

"Ok, so tell me."

Mark then launched into an epic tale of death, treachery, and more death. It was quite depressing, and I wondered how these games are usually only rated E or E-10.

"You like _Star Wars_, right?" Mark began.

"Yeah…?"

"Ok, the Death Star. Picture that. That's pretty much this space station thing here called Space Colony ARK. It was originally for research and all that jazz, but things happened, it got complicated, and BOOM." Mark said plainly.

"Um…ok." I said. "Can you go deeper with the detail?"

"if you really want me too." Mark said. "One of the things they were working on was some genetic engineering… stuff. I'm not exacally sure, but this is where Shadow comes into the picture."

"Let me guess." I said. "Frankenstein, right?"

"Pretty much." Mark said after a pause. "There was this girl that saved him from the lab place."

"Ok, this is very not weird." I said. "Who wrote this storyline?"

"I don't know. Anyway, Shadow and the girl became friends and she ended up sending him down to Mobius so he wouldn't get killed." Mark said. "But then the people in the ARK tracked her down and killed her."

"That's…awful." I said. "But why?"

"She knew what they were doing, and so… yeah." Mark muttered. "Shadow watched her die."

I glanced up ahead of me at everyone. It was eerily quiet with no one speaking. "What was her name and what did she look like?" I whispered.

"Her name was Maria and she pretty much looked like you." Mark said.

"Really?" I asked. "Wait…this is all a game, right? She never really existed, did she?"

"I really don't know at this point." Mark shrugged. "You're always saying this isn't real, but it sure seems real. I know this is all impossible, but here it is right in front of us."

"I take everything I said that was bad against this place back." I murmured. "This place rocks, and although I love it so, I would really like to go home now."

"it isn't all nice." Mark reminded me. "You just found that out."

"…Right."

We continued to walk down the hall that was steadily growing darker.

"What did Silver mean by 'when's the next date'?" I asked. If anyone would know, then Mark would.

He looked at me as if thinking very hard. "…I don't know. It could even be something that happens further into the game. Remember I haven't finished it yet."

"Oh, great." I muttered.

"Here." Blaze said suddenly, making me and Mark jump. "There is a door."

Sure enough, nearly hidden in the wall in a particularly dark spot was a door.

Silver used his awesome psychic powers to open it. Another dark hallway greeted us.

"Ladies first." Silver offered, looking worried.

"You heard him. Ladies first." Blaze turned to Knuckles and motioned for him to go ahead.

"What? Why you…" Knuckles growled.

Blaze gave him a sort of evil little half smile. She went ahead of everyone anyway.

The hallway wasn't long. Only about 30 seconds until we reached another door, this one not even latched. Bright yellow light spilled out of it and into the hallway.

"I think we finally made it." Mark said, lifting his pipe over his shoulder. "Come on, let's fight things that may be waiting for us."

Blaze grabbed his hair before he could open the door. "Ow!"

"We don't know what could even be waiting for us." She hissed. "It could be a couple of robots. It could be an army. It could even be Eggman himself."

"Well, then. There's seven of us and one of him. That seems fair, right?"

"Mark, just stop talking." I growled.

"I'll go first." Shadow approached the door.

"Ok, y…you do that…" Tails was shaking so bad it looked like we were having some sort of earthquake only he could feel.

"Jeez, buddy, relax." Knuckles muttered.

Shadow opened the door and slipped into the brightly lit hallway. Or room. I didn't know yet.

We all waited there for about five seconds.

"No one's there." Shadow said. "Come on."

We entered into a brightly lit room. There were two doors not counting the one we had just entered into, on the opposite side of the room, right next to each other. Besides the doors, there was nothing else.

"Look up!" Tails said.

We looked up and saw a vast array of guns, all aimed down at us.

"Oh, sweet mother of-" Knuckles started. The weapons began firing.

"AAGHAAGAAAA!"

I have never felt so scared in my entire life. Everyone began to split up and take to a different side of the room. I saw Mark throw his pipe and take a couple of guns out. Tails shot at them randomly while running in circles; Silver sort of cast a rebounding shield around a couple of guns and they blew up; Blaze was toasting them left and right.

And I had nothing. I didn't really care.

I made a break for one of the doors with everyone right behind me. We burst into a random door and stood there in the pitch darkness, trying to catch our breath.

"What….the….what was that?" I demanded.

"It would have been our grave if Tails hadn't noticed the guns." Shadow said.

"Oh, hi, Shadow. Hi, Monica." Silver squeaked.

"Are there only three of us here?" I asked.

"Apparently."

"Ok, let's hope that we won't get ambushed."

**MARK**…

Talk about an adrenaline rush.

That was pretty much the most scary moment of my life right there, yet the most exciting. An entire roof covered with guns that actually _worked_. Amazing! In a scary way, but still…amazing…

"Ok, so who's in this dark hallway with me?" I asked.

"Me." Three voices said at the exact same time.

"Who's me?"

"Me, Blaze and Tails." Knuckles said.

"Ok, then. I saw Monica, Silver and Shadow head into that door over there, so let's go." I said.

Blaze lit the way and we continued on.

"Just how big is this place?" Knuckles wondered out loud. "It seems to get bigger with every hallway!"

"I keep thinking that we're going in circles." I said. "Like we'll get stuck wondering around…and around…and around…"

"Stop! You're giving me the creeps!" Tails squeaked. "Let's all just keep our mouths shut and continue on, ok?"

So keep our mouths shut and continue on we did.

Until we came to the dead end.

"What…the…_heck_…" Knuckles growled. "We almost get killed, we duck behind a door that lead to another long, dark hallway, and now we have to go_ back_ and almost get killed again?"

"That's the idea." Blaze hissed. "There's no sign of a trapdoor either."

Knuckles cursed. "Might as well turn back, then…"

And turn back we did, because he had nothing else to do.

We came back to the door that would lead us to the room full of guns.

"Ready, everyone?" Blaze asked.

"No, but I'll manage." Tails whimpered.

Knuckles flung the door open. "CHAAARGE!"

We charged about five steps into the room, turned left, and bolted to the other door that was five feet away.

"They're aiming at us! They're aiming at us! _THEY'RE AIMING AT UUUUUSS_!" Tails shrieked, firing his gun like crazy.

Blaze nearly ripped the door off its hinges in her haste to get it open. We darted into the hall and slammed the door behind us.

"If this keeps up I'm gonna die!" Tails said quietly.

"I think we all might. Come on, let's catch up with everyone." I said. "I don't see them. Maybe they found the end already."

**MONICA**…

There was a tremendous bang at the end of the hallway behind us. We all stood deathly still.

"Um….Silver….?" I whispered. "…Whoever it is might see you. Stop glowing."

"I can't."

"Oh great."

There were some hurried voices and then a shout of, "Hello, any people that are down that hallway happen to be my twin sister?"

I sighed. "Mark, if you didn't know that we were here, you could be dead by now."

"Well, there's always a risk." Mark said. His group came to ours. "So, sup?"

"The ceiling!" Silver said.

"Whatever. Let's just move on." I said. "I swear, we're nearly there…"

Fifty seconds later we came to a door.

"If this opens to another hallway I'll scream." Mark hissed. "If this is another dark, scary, long hallway I'll…I'll…"

"Shut up?" Shadow suggested.

"I was gonna suggest smash something, but I like that one better." I smiled, even though no one could see me in the dim light.

So everyone took a deep breath and we opened the door.

Luckily, Mark didn't scream or smash things.

Sadly, he didn't shut up.

"Thank God." He muttered as we all stepped into a dim and huge circular room.

"What is this place?" I asked. Even though I whispered, my voice echoed around the room.

"Over here." Blaze pointed. Dead left to me was a small staircase leading up. I headed off to it.

"What's up here…?"

"It could be a trap." Shadow warned.

"Yeah, it could. That's why I'm going with her." Mark ran to my side. "I'm your brother, I'm suppost to follow you around. It's a law or something."

"Well, when I'm president I'll revoke that law." I replied, looking around me. There was a weird looking net thing at the base of the stairs. I wondered what it was for.

"Ha, ha."

We climbed the first few stairs until we could see the top. There was a door, but it was guarded by a huge lock.

"What the heck?" I wondered, going over to it. "Ok, huge flimsy lock. If I had a paper clip, we'd be past here in no time. Luckily, we have another way in." I turned back to the group that was slowly starting to spread out to look around the room. "Hey, Silver!"

Silver jumped and accidentally tipped a vase thing that was sitting on a small table. It fell to the ground and shattered…loudly.

A loud alarm began to blare. Red lights flashed. Steel bars covered the door we had entered in.

"Monica, Mark! Get down here!" Blaze hissed.

We joined the group and went back-to-back. "What's going on?" Mark asked.

"I'm sorry…?" Silver squeaked.

"You're gonna be!" Knuckles hissed.

Then a secret door opened up directly in front of me. About a dozen robots filed out of it, each one holding some sort of gun hopped up on steroids.

"Surrender." They said in unison.

I was pretty sure everyone in the group was thinking the exact same thing. Knuckles actually spoke it. "Make us. We'll tear you up before you can even get near us."

With that, everyone with a weapon charged forward. That would have been everyone, but me. I quickly glanced around for anything.

The table that the vase had been on seemed pretty ok for now. I ran over and wrenched a leg off of it.

"All right! You want some of this? Bring it on!" I charged to help Mark destroy a robot.

After it was a smoking pile of scrap, he turned to me and said, "We make a pretty good team, huh, Monica?" Then he was off to bash more things.

Screw the table leg when I could have a rocket launcher, practically. I stole the robot's gun and turned to see what I could do next.

I saw one that had my name written on it in bold print.** KILL ME MONICA, KILL ME**!

**MARK**…

This was the best day of my life. I know I said that once or twice, but this wins all. Especially fighting robots with a metal pipe. Some people say that visits to the park are exciting? Please…

After I whacked a robot's head off into the wall I grabbed its gun. "Anyone need this?" I shouted over the noise.

No one answered me, nor did they even seem to have a second to spare.

Figures. I'm stupid.

So now I had two guns. Fear me.

"YAAA! FOR NARNIA!" I screamed, shooting a robot's leg out. It crashed to the ground and its head flew off.

"Watch out!" Blaze yelled.

I turned to see a robot aim its gun at my face. I couldn't move out of the way in time, that was impossible…

"OOF!" I groaned as Blaze shoved me out of the way and onto the hard floor. The robot fired its gun, but Blaze twisted in midair and it narrowly missed her.

"Thanks, Blaze!" I said. I turned to see another robot. "Oh….jeez…"

This one was as tall as five of the others put together. It had four arms, each one with either a gun or some club. Its eyes were glowing a harsh orange as it stared down at me.

"AAAAH!" I screamed as I dived out of range as its foot crashed next to me. Now I know how bugs feel. I swore to myself that I would never squish a bug again.

I began firing at its head, but it was protected by some kind of force field. What the heck?

"This isn't fair!" I grumbled.

Then I noticed what was in its eyes.

There was a large bronze key inside its head. I could just barely make it out, but it was there. I glanced at the locked door above the staircase. Would it fit…?

Only one way to find out.

"Hey, guys! This robot has a key!" I shouted, firing at it, trying to keep it busy while the others got a chance to finish off the other robots. "I think it goes to that locked door!"

Knuckles ran over to me and stared at the robot's head. "You're right. Come on, let's take it down!"

A thought occurred to me. If I was in the game, then was this possible that I went along with the storyline, and this was a boss? If it was, then all bosses have a weak point. I just had to find it…

I took a few steps backwards from the robot. Its head was protected by a force field, it seemed unaffected by any type of gun, and even though Knuckles was slashing away at it, it didn't even seem to notice. Well, there's always plan B.

"Try to trip it, or something! Get it to fall! When it does, then we can take it!" I shouted.

Monica got what I was trying to do and ran over to one of its legs and whacked it as hard as she could with her gun. It made a loud CLANG, but other than that, nothing much.

Everyone made a circle around it. "Try to confuse it!" Silver shouted. "Then maybe Mark's plan will work!"

It was easier said than done. The thing had four arms, for crying out loud. It tried to confuse_ us_.

That was when I noticed a bar stretching from one side of the roof to the other. It looked like it was for suppost, so the room wouldn't come tumbling down, but to me, it looked like a robot head smasher.

"Get it over to that bar! We can smash its head against it!" I said.

"Got it!" Monica said back. "Wow, Mark, you're smart! Unbelievable!"

"Hey, over here, you huge piece of scrap! Yeah, I'm talking to you! Get over it! Come get me! Ha! I forgot! You can't, can you?" Silver yelled at the robot.

Surprisingly, he got its attention. It began walking towards him. It head was only a couple of feet from the bar…

"You can't get me…you can't get me…" Silver ran further back into the room.

The robot leaned forward to grab him. With a loud CLANG, its head struck the pole.

"Yes! It worked!" I shouted, pumping my fists in the air.

The robot fell back onto its back with a loud CRUNCH. Its head split and the key was reveled.

"I got it!" Silver ran over to the robot.

"Silver, wait!" Shadow shouted, but it was too late.

The robot wasn't dead yet. It raised one of its arms, one with a gun, and shot at Silver as he reached for the key.

I wasn't sure if it missed or hit. Silver either jumped or got shot into a corner.

"Silver?" I asked.

"Watch out!" Blaze screamed as the robot staggered back to its feet and glared at us.

"Come on! Try the pole-in-the-head thing again!" I shouted.

**MONICA**…

I really, really, REALLY hoped that these guys could take on the robot by themselves. I began to back up back to where Silver had fallen, shooting as I went.

"Silver, are you ok?" I demanded.

Silver gave me a worried smile and handed me the key. "Just take this and get that door open!"

"Wait…" I ripped one of my sleeves off my T-shirt. "Here. Put pressure on it. You'll be ok, right?"

"You know, Blaze was right about you." Silver said. "You do have a good heart after you get past the stone that surrounds it."

"Stop talking about things that happened a while ago. It makes it seem like you're going to die, because you won't. I won't let that happen." I said. "Just don't bleed all over the floor, ok?"

"Get that door open." Silver said.

"That's next on my to-do list." I gripped the key and ran off towards the door.

As I was running, I glanced back at the robot, who seemed infuriated that I had its key. With a loud roar(If that's what you can even call it) it came after me.

"Monica, watch out!" Shadow shouted.

I don't know what made me do it, but I jumped as high as I could in the air. A laser thing from one of its guns struck the ground where I had stood a second before. Talk about pure ninja.

"Ha, it's going to take a lot more to get me." I mumbled, sprinting so fast I saw sure I would fall on my face any second.

Something slammed behind me into the ground, but I didn't dare look back. It was probably the robot trying to crush me with one of its clubs.

I was nearly to the door…

"Would you just die, you stupid piece of-" Knuckles yelled. I head a couple of snaps. Hopefully it was the robot.

I reached the stairs and ran up them three at a time…glanced back just in time to see the robot run into the pipe again and fall flat on its face...

"Serves it right." I mumbled, putting the key into the lock and turning it sharply.

With a loud CLICK, the lock unlocked. I pulled the giant lock away from the door and it opened into a dark room.

"Hello? Anyone here?" I asked. There was a huge BOOM from outside.

There was a slight hissing noise and a huge metal door fell over the way I had just entered in. I was left in darkness for about three seconds before huge, bright lights shone around the room. "Is…is anyone here?" I asked again.

"Good to see you again, Monica. I see you managed to get the key from my robot."

I wanted to run over to Eggman and punch him that outrageously long nose of his. But I was still blinded by the lights. "It wasn't me. I'll put it this way: Whoever got the key was shot and pretty much watching from the sidelines as everyone fights." I hissed. "Now you let us all out of this…this maze of a base before I take my fist and shove it in your ear."

"Such confidence." Eggman laughed. "But I'm afraid I can't do anything about getting you or your friends out of here. You see, I don't help people that give their friends up to go back home."

"Speaking of going back home, I don't want to until I put things right." My eyes were about 90% adjusted to the light. "So that means I'll stay right here and argue this all out until you let Sonic go."

I began to look around the room. One corner was filled with about six computer monitors, all broadcasting the same picture; of my friends and brother fighting the robot in the room outside. Another corner was filled with bits and pieces of what looked like robot legs and arms. And in the one nearest me was a fully assembled robot holding a gun, which was aimed at me.

"If you know what's good for you, you'd give up and surrender." Eggman suggested.

"Where is Sonic?" I asked, narrowing my eyes dangerously.

"Somewhere."

"That's not good enough."

I couldn't see his eyes behind those weird Ozzy Osborne glasses, but I sure hoped that they were worried, at least.

"Where is he?" I demanded again.

That was when I heard a quiet shuffling sound coming from the opposite side of the room. I wouldn't have heard it if Mark and the others hadn't pulled the robot down at that exact moment.

I followed the sound back to the computer monitors. Was there a mouse back behind them?

I stooped down to look behind them when something hit me on my shoulder and sent me tumbling into a wall. I scrambled up to see the robot running at me.

I waited until it was nearly three feet from me before I punched its arm out and slammed both my fists over its head. I grabbed its gun. "Ok, now you can tell me…or you can see if this gun really works." I said.

"Stupid slow robots…" Eggman cursed.

The shuffling sound came again, still behind the monitors. I crawled back to them, still keeping an eye on Mark's archrival, who was quickly becoming my own too.

I pulled one of the monitors away from the wall and found a small grove in the wall. I ran my hand along it. Until it stopped and changed direction a few feet up.

"A secret door." I thought as I pulled the other monitors away from the wall.

"Careful with those!" Eggman yelled. "They were expensive!"

"Whatever."

Then I had it. A small trapdoor, with no lock. It was my lucky day.

I pulled open the door and saw only darkness. "Hello?" I called softly. "Is anyone there?"

**MARK**…

Three times we had knocked the robot over and three times over it refused to die. What was this? It was freaken' indestructible no matter how many times Knuckles pummeled it.

"This is hopeless." I muttered, "This thing won't die."

Tails stood there for a second, looking up at the robot. "I have an idea, but I might die in the process."

"Well then, don't do it." I said.

"But it might work!" Tails said. "If I can fly up to its head, maybe it'll go for me. I'll jump out of the way, and it'll hit itself!"

I looked up at the robot. One of its eyes wasn't glowing anymore and one of its arms was broken off.

"Well…if you're really confidant…" I muttered. "Just be careful!"

Tails flew up to the robot's head and I glanced back at the door that Monica had run into. What was taking her so long? Was there ANOTHER hallway? Did she happen to run into a squad of robots?

"HIII YAAA!" Tails yelled, jumping over the robot's club as it flew towards him. The robot hit itself square in its own head. It staggered, and then fell on the ground with an earth shaking BOOOM.

"Get it!" Tails said happily.

We charged and beat the spark plugs out of it.

I grabbed one of its clubs and struggled to carry it over it its neck. I swung it, and the head popped clean off its body.

Everyone stood there for about three seconds.

"Wow. We did it." Blaze said at last.

"Good work, everyone." Knuckles said. "Mark, I never knew you were so good at fighting robots."

"I didn't either." I muttered, embarrassed.

"Where's Silver?" Blaze asked.

I spun around and spotted him near the wall. "Come on." I ran over to him, with everyone following me.

"Silver, are you ok?" Blaze demanded.

Silver didn't react or answer her at all. He seemed paler than he had been when we first saw the robot.

"Silver?" I tried to ignore the blood that was covering his side. I grabbed a piece of cloth that had been clenched in Silver's fist. It was Monica's shirt sleeve.

"I guess that First Aid class paid off a bit." I whispered to myself.

"Silver? Speak to me! Now!" Blaze nearly yelled.

Silver still didn't do anything.

"We need to get him out of here." Shadow said. "If we can't find anything in here to help him then if we stay, he'll die."

"But we can't leave Monica." I said. "What if she's in trouble?"

"I'll stay here, then." Shadow said.

"Me too." I said. "She's my sister."

**MONICA**…

The shuffling sound was louder. It was definitely coming from behind that trapdoor thing. "Hello?" I called again.

I glanced around and found a small flashlight. I clicked it on and shone it into the door.

There was a small passage leading down. Down to…who knew.

"You're going first." I said, poking my head out of the trapdoor and around the computer monitors. "Just in case."

"What? Me?" Eggman asked. "Why?"

"Because I said so and you're the cause of everything." I said. I motioned with the gun I had. "Move it, fatty."

I had to admit, it was pretty darn funny watching Eggman get his fat self into the door. I almost laughed.

"Ok, now go or I shoot you in the butt." I said.

"You don't have to be so bossy…"

"Well, I am."

I waited until he was about halfway down the passage before I followed.

We more or less slid down the passage before we came to a small dimly lit room. In one corner of the room was a small cage thing. I gasped.

"Sonic?"

"Monica? What are you doing here? Did he get you too?" Sonic asked. His arms were tied together to one of the bars of the cage. He tried to kick out the bars near his feet. That was the weird shuffling noise I had heard.

"No, I'm getting you out of here." I said. I took the gun and blasted a few of the bars off. "Come on. We don't have much time."

"But you sold me out to him in the first place." Sonic said. "I can't trust you."

"Well, I'm here to rescue you, am I not?" I countered. "How could you not trust me anym-HEY get back here!" I grabbed Eggman's foot as he tried to scurry back up the tunnel. "This time you're going last."

After some slight difficulty we managed to all get up the tunnel and back into the room. "Now open the door." I said. "And let us go."

Eggman pressed a button on a remote thing and the steel door disappeared into the ceiling. Sonic and I exited.

"Guys!" I shouted. "Guys?"

"Monica!" I was nearly pushed to the ground from the huge, unexpected hug from my usually unaffectionate twin brother. "You're alive!"

"What, you didn't expect me to be?"

"No, it's just…Hey, you found Sonic! Great!" Mark said. "So what took so long?"

"The stupid guy on the list of 'Psychopathic Maniacs.'" I jerked a thumb behind me where Eggman was standing.

"Oh. Yeah." Mark muttered. "Anyway, we got to get out of here. Everyone except Shadow and I left. Silver's pretty much dead, and we need to get him somewhere…fast."

I sighed. "Well, we'd better leave." I turned to Eggman. "So much as send one robot after us I will personally go all the way back here and kick your butt from here to next Tuesday."

"Nicely worded." Sonic snickered.

"Monica, we can't trust him." Mark said. "I think we should try another tactic."

**MARK**…

After we had tied Eggman to the robot we defeated, we ran out of there as fast as we could.

Monica and I still had our guns, and we held them at the ready as we exited the room and ran down the slightly short hallway to the room full of guns.

"I hope everyone got through here safely." I whispered as we prepared to bolt.

"One…two…three…GO." Shadow threw the door open and we ran to the door opposite of us before the guns even realized there were people in the room.

"That went rather well." I remarked as we stood in a dark hallway once again. "Now what the heck do we use as light?"

"Um…" Monica thought. "Ok, I got nothing."

"Let's go. Maybe we can catch up with the others." Shadow started walking down the passage.

"Yeah, they probably didn't get too far anyway." I said. We followed the wall so we wouldn't get lost.

Soon enough we saw a small glow ahead.

"Blaze? Blaze, it's us!" Monica called. "We got Sonic!"

There were some hurried footsteps and the light got brighter as Blaze ran towards us. "You did? Great. Sonic, the robot shot Silver and we don't know if he'll last until we reach the main factory."

"Oh no." Sonic sounded really surprised. "What happened?"

I quickly explained what had happened with as much detail as I could.

"Wow…"

"If he's dying, why are we standing around talking?" Shadow asked loudly.

"Right…" I muttered. "come on."

We pretty much ran the rest of the way out of the hallway. Along the way I got a glance at Silver. He didn't look good at all. The small net thing I saw at the base of the stairs in the circular room was serving as a stretcher.

"Hey, he's not really glowing anymore." Monica whispered to me. "Is that bad?"

"Probably." I said back.

We came to the door, opened it, and continued on. We began to go faster.

"After this tunnel there's the main place." Tails reminded everyone. "Then after that we need to get to a hospital or something."

"Mark, do you think we won the game yet?" Monica asked.

"I don't know. That could have been the boss leading up to the main boss." I said. "Or just the level's boss…"

"Oh, please don't say that…" Monica muttered. "I like this place, but I don't want to get attacked by robots forever."

"Me neither." I said.

We finally saw some light spilling into the dim tunnel. Tails ran up and opened the door. We had made it back to the main factory at last.

"How bad is he?" I asked as Knuckles and Blaze put the net/stretcher thing down gently.

"Pretty bad." Monica's voice was barely more than a whisper. "Silver, can you hear me?"

"He can't." Shadow said. "Hurry. The more time we waste the closer he gets to death."

"Quickly, to_ The Tornado_!" Tails shouted.

**MONICA**…

We reached Tails' house in record time. If there was a police squad for the skies, we probably would have been arrested for going about 100 MPH over the speed limit. There was barely enough room in the entire plane and sidecars for all but one of us. Sonic decided just to run back to the house, which saved us a lot of time and arguing.

Literally as soon as we touched down Tails jumped out of the plane, not even bothering to put it in the hanger. "Come on!"

We raced into the house and Mark picked up the phone. "Um...what's the number?" He asked after a second's hesitation.

"Give me that." Shadow grabbed the phone.

"How far is the hospital from here?" Mark asked.

"I dunno, about a twenty five minuet walk, but in a ambulance, I'd say about…ten minuets?" Tails estimated. "Depends on how much traffic and how busy they are."

"Someone get me gauze!" I said loudly. "He's lost too much blood already!"

"Do you know what to do?" Sonic asked.

"I had some basic training in First Aid." I said. "Hopefully it'll be enough. Someone help me get him on his side."

Blaze and I carefully rolled Silver over. "Ok, I need something that nobody cares if it's stained majorly." I said.

Tails came back a second later with a small green hand towel thing. I folded it up and pressed it to Silver's side. "Gauze." I said.

Blaze and I secured the makeshift bandage in place. "Now what?" she asked.

"We wait." I said. "That's all we can do for now."

**MARK**…

My twin sister, The Lifesaver.

That's what the doctors in the ambulance said when they pulled up at the house. Although Monica tried to give credit to everyone else, they just ignored her.

Just a few days ago she didn't want anything to do with Mobius or anyone on it. But here she was, saving its inhabitants.

That day I was glad for a hero sister, sort of. I got some credit from Blaze and Knuckles on how skilled I was at bashing things.

A Warrior and a Healer. Pretty good combination, if you ask me.

We are unstoppable!...hopefully.

Three days passed, and in that time Monica met Cream's chao, Cheese. All three of them were great friends.

Also in that three day time of exploring and waiting to hear from Silver, we sort of got Blaze to tell us what the dreaded 'dates' were.

They had worked vigorously over the last few months to gather information on where, when and who would attack next. Because everyone knows there are bad guys everywhere.

The thing that happened four days ago? Not even expected.

We sort of ended up swearing on our lives to never tell anyone about the ARK, because Monica sort of let it slip.

"I guess you really are from another world." We finally convinced Knuckles.

Yey.

It was on the fifth day that we visited Silver in the hospital.

"Hey, you're alive!" I said happily, walking in the room with everyone else. "Monica saved you, you know?"

"I heard only about a million times." Silver said. "But you guys had to do something too, right?"

"Nah, Monica's so awesome, we just stood there and stared." Sonic said sarcastically.

"Well, in case I don't get out of here before you leave, bye." Silver muttered.

"What?" I asked. "Is there a way back to our world?"

"I don't know. I just have this feeling that something will happen to send you back." Silver stared out the window nearby.

"Ok, then." Monica muttered. "Well, you're psychic, so I guess we'd better listen to you."

"That's right." Silver said happily.

**MONICA**…

The next day I met Charmy, Vector and Espio. They were a weird threesome, but they seemed to be great friends, as far as I could tell. Charmy couldn't wait to show how brave he was by attacking Shadow for me for no apparent reason. I guess he was determined to show his buddies he could fight too, even if Shadow beat him into a wall.

Vector was into mysteries, so we had a great time talking about mysterious things, like how the heck can the police not convict someone of murder when the evidence is right in front of them. We eventually decided that they were paid to do so because of an assassin or something.

While I talked to Vector and Charmy, Espio gave Mark some fighting tips because he was a freaken' ninja, for crying out loud. He had a whole collection of ninja stars and kunis.

It was a great day. But at some point it had to end.

Halfway through the day there was a knock at the door. Mark answered it.

"You have done well." Came a soft voice. Everyone seemed to hear it and get quiet.

"I guess we have." Came Mark's answer. "Are you here to send us back?"

I went over to the door to see a hooded figure. Then I remembered Mark's words: _"It was pretty normal, except halfway through I ran into this cloaked guy. He said our names, and something about coming here…"_

"Mark and Monica," The cloaked dude said. "You have done well, but your time here is done."

"It is?" I asked. I was surprised by the questioning tone in my voice. I had wanted to go back all along, but after seeing how great this place was…

"What about everyone else? We still didn't meet everyone." Mark protested.

"I'm afraid you can't anyway." The hooded guy said. "But that's a story for another time."

Mark and I exchanged glances and turned around to see everyone behind us. "You're leaving? Already?" Charmy asked. "Whyyyy?"

"Well, we have our own world to get back to." I said. "We can't stay here forever."

"See you all again, hopefully." Mark said, looking very sad.

"It was awesome meeting you!" Cream squeaked. "Come by to visit again!"

The hooded guy turned around and we followed him out the door into the yard. "So how exacally does this work?" I asked. "How do we get back to our own world?"

"Like this." The hooded guy said, and a flash of light engulfed us.

**MARK**…

After the glow faded, I saw a familiar sight.

My Wii. The TV. My basement. We were home.

I glanced at Monica. "I didn't just dream all that, did I?" I asked.

"I sure hope not." Monica pointed to her shirt sleeve that was torn off. "This is proof."

"So…" I glanced at the clock, which said 9:00 AM. Hardly any time had passed here. "…Wanna finish the game?"

Monica gave me an evil little smile and grabbed the controller. "Watch me kick your butt to the Goal."

**Wahoo, it's done! Man, this story took me forever to write, because I had to write out the storyline and stuff, and character development was freaken' torture! Wow…anyway, that's that. Hope you liked it, because I liked writing it. Very cool to send people into video games, neh? **

**Anyway this is gonna be the last fan fiction for a while, because I have to read some books and start the school year off strong. I usually can't start off strong if I'm writing fan fiction at the same time. It can distract me. **

**So in about two months there should be another fic up. I don't know what it'll be about, though…we'll just have to wait and see!**

**Oh, yeah, and Eggman's still tied to that robot, right? …Sequel? **


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